077: Friday Jams | Anberlin – Ready Fuels

by howmanybeards

Anberlin. One of those bands that I was introduced to in high school but never came to enjoy until college. And then honestly, after their second album I never really got around to their newer music. I don’t think I’ve ever classified them as a favorite, oh sure they were probably on the list of bands I liked on Facebook circa 2006, but they were never in heavy rotation.

But, whenever one of their songs comes on Pandora I always sing along and know more of the words than I do for a lot of songs I listen to on the regular. Maybe it’s because they’re one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.

It was freshman year of college, and a friend of mine from down the hall had asked if I wanted to go a few days earlier. We bought tickets, but the day before we found out the show might not happen – the front-man had come down with the flu. Yet day of the show was still on so we walked down to what was then the Beta Bar (now the Engine Room?) and jammed in with everyone else. The band that opened for them, Showbread, was this insane screamo-noise rock mash-up band that performed with a fairly intoxicating energy. But then Anberlin came on. And even though they were touring in support of their (at the time) newest album, which I had only listened to once or twice and the fact that the lead singer had a 100+ degree fever they just absolutely killed it.